Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Enough of this "Sophisticated Soccer-Base" Nonsense

Ever since Toronto FC debuted back in April 2007, its supporters have been referred to by local media as a "sophisticated soccer base." It's patronizing that adult MLS fans with a committed stake in the outcome of matches and a working knowledge of the league table are suddenly pipe-carrying, elbow patched Lobanovskyi's ready with our doctoral theses on the coming of 4-6-0.

Anyway, the notion goes, most recently articulated by Paul James the Globe and Mail, that barring significant changes at the managerial level, the "sophisticated" fans in the south stand at BMO Field will empty out until Mo Johnston leaves and is replaced by MLSE brass with a competent manager capable of working the MLS player market and transforming the club into a winning venture.

Maybe, but these "sophisticated fans" supposedly schooled in Euro soccer history have already had to overcome the hump of supporting what is essentially a expansion franchise in a centrally administered, egalitarian soccer league based in the USA, owned by an extraordinarily wealthy corporation that owns a hockey club that is the best supported in the world and has failed to win the Stanley Cup since 1967. These are supporters whose little tidbits of fan culture have been appropriated as marketing tools, luring "unsophisticated" fans in with the prospect of authentic "atmosphere" to go along with the eight dollar chip buttys. Hell, the scarves raised in two thirds of the stadium are corporate give aways.

And we're now on year three of no playoffs, and no significant progression, and more importantly, no concrete improvement on the quality of play. But we'll still show up because Toronto FC is all we have; it exists to fill a club football sized hole in the centre of the city. Don't think MLSE you've done anything truly special yet other than getting the club here. "Sophisticated" fans that we are, we know it's the only show in town. All we can do is ask that, as we continue to aid your marketing strategy with our songs and banners and the rest, you give back a little by making some hard decisions about how this club is run.

1 comment:

Hey I'd like to think I am quite sophisticated!To be honest I am not TFC's greatest fan, I have seen about 2 or 3 games live every season and very few on TV. What I think this team needs is to lose the "British" attitude, there is some decent ball players in this side (MLS standards) that we could play some decent football, a "continental" or south american "style" coach I think would be best suited for this team, especially with the grass coming in finally.I highly doubt we will se Mo gone anytime soon, but is there any rumours as to who he is thinking of bringing in. I just received the TFC email that he is looking for someone with MLS experience, MLS not being my strong point, who is a good footballing coach in the MLS? The guy in Seattle?

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While this blog started in December 2007 as a mish-mash on everything from North American Football Fans (NAFFs) to the history of soccer in Toronto, it has recently morphed into a football blog about football blogs, and soccer media in general, with a focus on North America and Canada in particular. It was included in the middle of the Guardian's (arbitrary) list of 100 football blogs to look for in 2011, after James Dart clearly ran out of ideas.

"It turned you into a member of a new community, all brothers together for an hour and a half, for not only had you escaped the clanking machinery of this lesser life, from work, from wages, rent, doles, sick pay, insurance cards, nagging wives, ailing children, bad bosses, idle workmen, but you had escaped with most of your mates and your neighbours, with half the town, cheering together, thumping one another on the shoulders, swapping judgments like Lords of the Earth, having pushed your way through a turnstile into another and altogether more splendid life." J. B. Priestley

About

Richard Whittall writes on football from his hovel in Toronto, Canada. In addition to this site, he also writes the Canadian Soccer history blog, The Spirit of Forsyth. He is a regular contributor the Score's Footy Blog, Canadian Soccer News, and Brian Phillip's unsurpassed Run of Play. His writing has appeared in Toronto Life and the Globe and Mail, and he was a contributor for Brooks Peck's Yahoo! blog Dirty Tackle for the 2010 World Cup. He appeared once on Football Weekly as villasupportgroup.